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Running Iron Portable on my Windows 7 machine, I set up synch and all worked as expected.
Transferred the stick to my XP machine, ran Iron Portable and the synch settings had gone (Wrench -> Options -> Personal Stuff -> Sync just has the "Set up sync..." box again with no settings shown).
This is not unique to Iron - I get the same behaviour with Google Chrome Portable.
Regards
Nick
I set the synch up again on the XP machine. On moving back to the Windows 7 machine they are again gone. So it's apparently not the case that the settings are being stored on the host machine somewhere, otherwise I would expect them still to be there on the Windows 7 machine from before (IYSWIM).
Regards
Nick
Would you mind downloading the "official" portable version of Iron from SRWare and seeing if you can reproduce this issue?
Also, could you try setting up sync on one machine, closing Iron Portable and ejecting the flash drive, then re-inserting the flash drive and re-running Iron Portable?
If you can reproduce this with the "official" portable Iron and re-running Iron Portable on the same machine reproduces the issue, it's likely the sync settings aren't being saved at all.
When I set up synch on a particular machine, it works - bookmarks, passwords, etc, are updated (which is good, as Iron isn't saving the passwords, as you know).
I did as you asked and when I reinserted the drive in the same machine and restarted Iron, the synch settings were still there (as were the passwords). So it appears that it's only when it's put into a different machine that it loses the settings.
Second part of answer to follow ...
Installed the "official" version, set up synch and repeated the procedure of shutting down and removing the stick from the Windows 7 machine, then putting it back in the SAME machine. As with your version the settings (and passwords) were retained.
Will transfer the stick to the other machine tomorrow and report back.
I just went digging in Iron's sync database and it looks like part of it, like the passwords database, is encrypted on a computer-specific basis. If the sync settings don't transfer properly (as I'm expecting they won't), that should confirm this behavior.
I'll have to take the PortablePasswords plugin and modify it to work with the sync data.
As predicted, "official" Iron Portable loses its synch settings when moved from the Windows 7 to the Windows XP machine.
I suppose the final thing to check is whether this version retains its synch settings when moved BACK to the Windows 7 machine (indicating that it has left those settings somewhere on the host machine).
Regards
Nick
When the stick was transferred from the XP machine back to the Windows 7 machine, the synch settings had again been lost.
Regards
Nick
That seems to confirm my theory that sync settings are tied to a specific computer and/or user account. I'll see if I can modify PortablePasswords to work with the sync database.
I'd be happy to try out a test build once you have one available.
Thanks for your willingness to help test fixes for this bug and the others you reported!
Since the fix for this issue will be based on the PortablePasswords plugin, I'll hold off on this until we get the portable passwords issue resolved.
Yep, I'll start working on parts of the PortablePasswords plugin as soon as I get a chance. Hopefully most of the plugin's core will work out-of-the-box and only the encryption key and database code will need modifying.
Presumably if you're able to make the synch settings portable with Iron, the same fix could be applied to Google Chrome portable?
I haven't looked at how Chrome saves sync settings, but yes, a fix for Iron could probably be applied to Chrome too (just like the PortablePasswords fix was originally for Chrome, but works just as well for Iron).
Did you make any progress with this (he said hopefully)?
Nick
I haven't made much progress yet. I've got some things going on IRL and I'm trying to get my latest project ready for its first Development Test here, so I haven't had a lot of free time for this. I'm also trying to get access to a machine with Microsoft Visual Studio, because Code::Blocks and PortablePasswords don't work well together.
If you want, I can post status checks in this thread whenever I get a step or two closer to having PortableSync complete.
Status updates would be great - thanks. I saw your comment in the other thread about version 11. Obviously it makes sense to wait for that.
I went through all of the PortablePasswords code and it looks like most of the code can be used unchanged/with relatively minor changes. There are just a few dozen lines - the database code, the heart of the plugin - that need major changes in order to work with a sync database.
I took care of all the simple changes (i.e. changing "ChromePasswords" to "ChromeSync" for error messages, in the Visual Studio project, etc.) I've also gotten about halfway done with the core changes (I've gotten to line 400 of 680 in the code).
I still don't have access to a system with Visual Studio, but Notepad++ and SQLiteSpy are all I need at this stage.
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